Blizzard primes Diablo IV for Steam release later this month

Blizzard is bringing Diablo IV over to Steam. Starting October 17, PC players can play the action RPG through Valve's ecosystem rather than the Blizzard's first-party launcher, Battle.net.

The move continues Activision Blizzard's recent efforts to migrate its newer (and somewhat old) games to Steam. In August, Blizzard brought Overwatch 2 to the platform and, despite being inundated with negative reviews, it opened as a Steam bestseller.

For most of Blizzard's lifetime, its games have existed on Battle.net. Bringing Diablo IV out of that ecosystem shows the company's continued shift toward widening the audience for its games by hosting titles a massive PC storefront like Steam and paying platform fees to reach new players.

Compared to Overwatch 2, which arrived on Steam nearly a year after its initial release, Diablo IV's jump after four months is considerably shorter. But unlike the hero shooter, Blizzard's newest title has been seemingly doing well in the months since release. 

Shortly after its June launch, Diablo IV was said to be Blizzard's fastest-selling game ever, and Activision Blizzard wasted no time in bragging about the game's success. Coming to Steam will only boost its popularity even further, particularly since it'll have cross-play like its PC and console versions.

Diablo IV is also the first entry in the series that comes to Steam. With Diablo 3's lifecycle having recently ended, and Diablo II: Resurrected still in play, it may not be long before those two titles get put on the platform so Steam players can experience the full breadth of the franchise in a modern context.